It is often the case that a baseball franchise will over-hype a player for publicity sake. It is not a secret, nor should anyone be surprised by this behavior. After all if it was our decision to make (how to manage the image of your team’s players), we would be doing the exact same thing. Enhancing the image of players is an accepted practice and is not a problem. There is nothing wrong with it. However, although your average baseball fan may fall for this type of marketing technique, the avid baseball community does not usually fall into the trap. I would argue that they have fallen for it in a case which I have been following very closely: Andrew Oliver.

The National League power rankings will look similar to the American League rankings, it will have a member of each division in the top 3 positions.

The San Francisco Giants have been given top spot because of their World Series victory. Right now they are the team to beat. This would be the case even if they traded their whole team away. Texas was not afforded the same spot in the AL simply because they did what every team could do,–and that includes amateur teams–lose.

What’s all this talk about the Phillies? Yeah, they acquired Cliff Lee, and yeah they have a sweet rotation… but the Braves ranked 3rd in ERA last year, and the Phils ranked 5th. Apparently MLVtv and ESPN haven’t taken this into consideration. Not only did the Braves have the 3rd best rotation in the NL… they did it without Jurrjens and Medlen. Booyah.

The Extreme Makeover: Home Edition crew rolled into the Wichita State Campus on Thursday. Everyone was invited to Eck Stadium for the big surprise. It was announced via Ty Pennington’s blow horn that former Shocker baseball player Carl Hall would be receiving a new home.

Last season’s Wild Card winning franchises are no strangers to success. The New York Yankees have failed to make the playoffs just once—in 2008—in the last 16 seasons. The Atlanta Braves returned to the playoffs, after missing five seasons in a row, but before that they had made the playoffs in 14 straight seasons. They differ in the amount of money they spend on their teams, with the Braves at a modest $86 million while the Yankees are paying their players a whopping $196 million.

It’s no secret now that the world is going to end in 2012. Both the holy-roller/end-time folks and secular scientists are talking about it, and it’s time that we accept this new reality. The newest signs that the end is near, is the Giants won the World Series and the Yankees want to move Jeter to the outfield. The book of Revelation eludes to the Yankees moving Jeter to the outfield in the “end times”, I think it’s in chapter 11. So, since 2011 could be the last baseball season ever, here are my baseball end-of-the-world predictions for 2011.

It is a well-known fact that the American League East is the toughest division in baseball and has been for years. One reason why the AL East is so tough is money. The New York Yankees ($207 million in 2010) and the Boston Red Sox ($160 million) have the highest pay rolls every season. This allows them to add the best players in the game to their respective teams. As a result, since 2003 the division has dominated baseball. Just to put the dominance into perspective, every season except 2006 the AL East’s second-place team has had more wins than the average of the five other division champions.

A few seasons ago, the Tampa Bay Rays made the division even tougher. The Rays built their team solely through the draft instead of the free agent route, and their success has made the other two teams in the division, the Toronto Blue Jays and the Baltimore Orioles, look even worse.

There are few big names left on the Free Agent Market. Some teams may have missed out on their top choices and have resorted to their back up plans. The Texas Rangers have done this after falling short in the Cliff Lee sweepstakes by signing Brandon Webb. Webb is a gamble, but has a high reward if he can return to his 2006 Cy Young pitching form.

No team can ever fully expect to fill the holes exactly how they mapped out before the off season started. This off season is a great example of that. Once your ideal player has been taken as a general manager you must move on to the next best option. The following is the first of two lists of the teams that made the moves to best improve themselves within their divisions. It doesn’t take into account the long term impact a big contract may have, just how it helps the team this season.

Every tiger fan has a soft spot for Jim Leyland. He is after all partially responsible for delivering the tigers from futility. In 2006 he inherited a team that had just lost 500 games in their previous 5 seasons including an abysmal 119 losses in 2003. In his first season he changed the clubhouse from a group of players who had no idea how to win into a team that worked hard for 9 innings and didn’t know how to lose. Or rather, they didn’t know how to lose in the first half.

In five seasons with the Tigers Jim Leyland has amassed an impressive winning percentage in the first half. With a record of 254 and 187 and a winning percentage of .576 he has not failed to have a .500 record in the first half with the tigers.

Notorious for being one of the worst teams in Major League Baseball since moving to Washington, the Nationals have had several top draft picks to build their system from the ground up. They have a deep, talented system; though their top ten may be deceiving due to Stephen Strasburg, Drew Storen, and Ian Desmond loosing prospect status last season. Although this list is far from the most impressive prospect list this season, the Nationals likely have the most exciting stock of players under 25. Additionally, Bryce Harper picks up any and all hype that Strasburg left behind. There are several top talents in this system that tend to get lost in the excitement surrounding Strasburg and Harper.